Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 1).djvu/214



Rome—The repugnance of the Romans to seafaring pursuits—Single-banked galleys of the Liburni—The fleets of Rome—Their creation and slow progress—The form and construction of their galleys—War with the pirates of Cilicia—First treaty with Carthage, 509—Its purport—College of merchants, established 494—No senator allowed to own ships, 226—Cicero's opinion of merchants—Contempt for mariners—Reduction of Egypt, 30, and trade with India—Customs' duties—The excise—Bounties on the importation of corn, 14—System of collecting the taxes—Value of the trade with Alexandria—Its extent—Vessels of Spain—Pharos or lighthouse at Gessoriacum—The shipping described by Tacitus—Rhodians—Their maritime laws—System of accounts in use at Rome—The corn trade of the city—Port of Ostia.

In a previous chapter an outline has been given of the commerce and navigation of the Carthaginians in succession to that of the Phœnicians. A rapid glance will now be taken of the shipping and progress of the maritime commerce of the great nation that destroyed Carthage, and, by the valour of its arms and the vigour of its political system, rather than by its genius and industry, extended its dominions over the whole of Italy, Syria, Egypt, and Western Asia, ultimately reducing to the condition of provinces all the habitable portions of Europe.

Great as soldiers, the citizens of Rome had, however, a repugnance to maritime affairs. "Their ambition," remarks Gibbon, in his history of their